I am trying to find out what sort of swear words people would have used in the 18th century. I have read that the word « God » was not taken in vain, for swear words, and was replaced by « Bleu » as it rhymes with « Dieu » e.g : ventrebleu, parbleu, corbleu, sacrebleu, morbleu. Though I'm really not sure how reliable this information is.Georgette Heyer uses plenty of 'Mon Dieu' throughout her dialogue.Any help much appreciated!

Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:11 am

baron de batz

Prince/Princesse

Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:21 amPosts: 1545Location: paris

Re: swear words

"Foutre" was very common, especially with the Père Duchesne. It basically means fuck. It still is common in modern day France.

_________________"Fidelité et constance, sans espoir de récompense."

Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:28 am

Liza

Noble

Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:34 amPosts: 23

Re: swear words

Thanks for that info, Baron,So you think they'd have been going around saying: Va te faire foutre? Any thoughts on Mon Dieu??Cheers!

Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:13 pm

baron de batz

Prince/Princesse

Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:21 amPosts: 1545Location: paris

Re: swear words

Well they didn't have that expression, but they called Louis a "mauvais fouteur" for example (which seems true at least for 7 years!)and Hébert punctuated his scandal rag with many a "foutre"!

_________________"Fidelité et constance, sans espoir de récompense."

Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:46 am

jimcheval

Prince/Princesse

Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:32 amPosts: 294

Re: swear words

Many of the words really haven't changed. The words for sex organs for instance (this is easily ascertained since the period is rife with obscene satirical verse). "Bougre" (which became the English "bugger", and was apparently derived from "Bulgarian", because of ideas that heretics there were opposed to heterosexual marriage) was used both to specifically designate sodomites and as a general insult or even exclamation (as it tends to be by some English speakers today). "Jean Foutre" was a deadbeat, a worthless person.

The poet Piron* wrote several cheerfully crude verses, such as this one which includes "le bougre encule tout d'une meme vitesse" (the bugger buggers all at the same speed):

Parbleu, ventrebleu, etc. seem to have been used on stage (by Moliere, for instance), but I haven't seen such expressions in daily life (criminal cases, etc.)

*Piron, a fierce rival of Voltaire, was most famous for having written an exuberantly obscene "Ode to Priapus" when younger:http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA9&dq ... pe&f=falseThis came back to haunt him when he was elected to the Academie Francaise, but refused by certain members because of his youthful excess. As a result, he wrote his own epitaph as follows:

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